EUROPE
LAND
02 May 16. A new contract with Babcock to manage the Ministry of Defence’s fleet of lease and hire vehicles will target savings of £100m. It follows the Defence Secretary’s instruction last year that the cost of vehicle hire was reviewed and reduced. The £47m contract has been awarded to Babcock. The company manage the so called ‘white fleet’ of cars, vans, trucks and specialist vehicles on behalf of the MOD, covering the UK and Northern Europe, as well as short term hire around the world. The new contract will help deliver the savings target of £100m over six years for vehicle hiring and leasing. The initial service within mainland UK is planned to start in September this year, followed by Northern Ireland in October and the rest of the world planned for April 2017. (Source: U.K. MoD)
02 May 16. Millbrook Proving Ground has signed a 5 year enabling contract with the UK MoD’s OSP TATA Division. The contract will assist the OSP to deliver new and in-service vehicles and equipment by testing at Millbrook. (Source: U.K. MoD desider)
04 May 16. Rheinmetall to supply ammunition and accessories for Bundeswehr’s Puma infantry fighting vehicle. In the ongoing process of integrating the Puma infantry fighting vehicle into the German armed forces, Rheinmetall has recently booked a series of orders from Germany’s Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support (BAAINBw). Besides production and delivery of 10,000 rounds of 30mm x 173 calibre armour-piercing ammunition, the Bundeswehr has contracted with Rheinmetall to modify a system gun rest, and to supply it with special tools and spare parts. The orders, placed from February to April, are worth over €12m in total. Rheinmetall’s Oberndorf unit is in charge of these projects. The former Mauser plant is the birthplace of the Puma’s newly developed main armament, the 30mm MK30-2/ABM automatic cannon. The accompanying array of ammunition includes programmable rounds, enabling the Puma to successfully engage a wide spectrum of targets.
AIR
02 May 16. DoD/DSCA Notifies Congress of Possible FMS of Hellfire Missiles to France. The U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has notified the Congress that the Government of France has requested the amendment of FMS Case FR-B-WAA to permit the possible sale of two-hundred (200) AGM-114K1A Hellfire Missiles, Hellfire Missile conversion, blast fragmentation sleeves and installation kits, containers, and transportation. The estimated MDE cost in this amendment is $25m. The total estimated cost is $30m. There is no principal contractor for this sale as the missiles are coming from U.S. Army stock. There are no known offset agreements in connection with this potential sale. (Source: glstrade.com)
USA
LAND
03 May 16. ArmorSource LLC has been selected by the United States Marine Corps to deliver 10,000 Lightweight Helmets (LWH). These helmets will be delivered during the first three quarters of 2017. In addition to the LWH, ArmorSource is the only vendor authorized to build the new Lightweight Advanced Combat Helmet (LWACH) for the United States Army. Delivery of the LWACH began last month with a total of 105,000 helmets to be delivered by the end of 2016. The LWACH will allow the soldier to replace the Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH) with a lighter and more ballistically sound helmet. (Source: Yahoo!/PRNewswire)
04 May 16. Exelis Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Harris Corp., Van Nuys, California, is being awarded a $70,288,630 fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the procurement of a maximum of 42 commercial-off-the-shelf Precision Approach Radar (PAR) systems for the Army (21), Navy (16), and Air Force (5), to replace the currently fielded AN-FPN-63(V). This contract also includes the uninterruptible power supplies, training and ancillary installation support for each PAR system. Work will be performed in Van Nu